5 Best PHP Frameworks 2017

PHP has become one of the most popular open source scripting languages to build complex web applications. PHP is a server-side scripting language that is executed on the server which generates HTML pages that can be viewed on the client side using a browser. Most of the developers who works on PHP are earning as freelancers while working on their full-time job. Let’s come to the point now, PHP has various frameworks that make developers easy to work on complex applications. Frameworks make the code simple and easy to write. However, most of us are still wondering to know which is the best PHP framework to start with. Don’t worry if you are the one looking for the same because I have collected 10 best PHP frameworks that would help you select one for your next project.

You will definitely find this post is great if you are looking for best PHP frameworks for 2017. By the end of this post, you will be able to understand which PHP framework would simplify and improve the efficiency of your process of web development.

What is PHP framework and why should I use it?

That’s a good question. When I was new to PHP, I never understood what is PHP framework and what’s the difference between PHP and PHP frameworks. I used to think that frameworks are other scripting languages similar to PHP, as I don’t know that they are also built with PHP. I always use google to learn new things online. I thought of learning PHP frameworks and searched google for the same. Then I came to know that framework is nothing but a tool that allows developers to build applications faster in an easier way.

Let’s see how PHP frameworks help you to progress to the next level in web development and how can we build complex web applications in a simple and efficient manner.

1. You can make your application development much faster with PHP frameworks.

2. You are on the safe side from security breaches.

3. PHP frameworks use MVC structure that makes your application much easier with a separate presentation of logic for model, views and controllers.

4. It helps you gain more skills of object oriented approach. (I learned objected oriented programming in PHP after using PHP frameworks.

List of the Best PHP frameworks

1. Laravel

Laravel is an open source PHP framework structured with MVC, beautifully designed for web developers by Taylor Otwell. It helps you build great applications with an ease. It is one of the most used PHP frameworks in the world.

With laravel, the speed of development takes much faster which will save a lot of your time. This PHP framework also has a template engine called blade.

Laravel’s query builder allows you to access the database directly without writing SQL queries, as it is capable of building queries programmatically.

It always makes easy for you to separate the logic for HTTP, GET and POST requests using its restful controllers.

There are many online resources that will help you learn this PHP framework with many good tutorials.

2. Codeigniter

Codeigniter was initially released in 2006 created by Rick Ellis. It is a powerful PHP framework loved by many developers for its light-weightedness. It is very easy and simple to setup and the process needs only small configuration and that is no way harder to any beginner. I use CodeIgniter for most of my applications and I love it.

Codeigniter PHP framework allows you to use normal PHP code and you can use your own naming conventions, hence it is a developer friendly PHP framework. As said before that CodeIgniter is a lightweight PHP framework, it occupies only 2MB space.

It is very easy to learn and you can find online communities where you find a lot of resources to learn this PHP framework.

3. Symfony

Symfony is a PHP framework with a set of reusable components. Most of its components are widely used in popular tools like drupal and phpBB. As we all know that drupal is a content management system and phpBB is a forum tool used to build top-level forums. Symfony also has a lot of developers loving it and for a reason, we can say that this is one of the best PHP frameworks because the popular PHP framework laravel also uses some of the components of Symfony.

You can easily access different components of Symfony for form creation, authentication, routing etc.

4. Yii

Yii is a PHP framework that uses lazy loading approach to give your website a great performance. It loads only the features that are required and has a good support for powerful caching.

Yii framework is solely based on the concept of Don’t Repeat Yourself making your code clean and neat. It is the best PHP framework for those who wants to work on ajax based applications as it is integrated with jquery that allows you to easily access ajax features.

It allows you to make your code more secure by validating form inputs with its classes especially built for validations. It has a layered caching system that makes your web application run faster than any other PHP frameworks. It has an automatic code generation system that helps you quickly create applications by generating code to access features like form inputs and CRUD easily.

5. Zend

If you are looking to make large complex applications using PHP, then you should use Zend framework, because it has a lot of configuration options.